Alcohol use among university students in Lebanon: prevalence, trends and covariates. The IDRAC University Substance Use Monitoring Study (1991 and 1999).

The practical inexistence of research on alcohol use among university students in Lebanon and other Arab countries spurred us at IDRAC to initiate a university-based substance use monitoring study, so far conducted in two phases (1991 and 1999), to assess the prevalence, patterns, trends, and factors associated with the use and abuse of alcohol (and other substances). In both phases, the sample was a stratified cluster, representing 25% (N = 1850) of the student population of two major universities in Lebanon. The rates of lifetime alcohol use and problem use have increased from 1991 to 1999, the increase being higher in younger cohorts and in females. Belief in God and practice of that belief, irrespective of the students' religion, were associated with less frequent experimentation with alcohol. Although more Christians ever drank alcohol, once users, university students (irrespective of their religion) had the same rates of alcohol problem use and dependence. Several other covariates concordant with the international literature were also delineated such as students' anti-social behavior, and family and peer environment.